WHEEL IN MOTION
If at first you don’t find the correct steering wheel… keep on trying!
’Then I thought, why not get a black wheel with Claret Red leather?’
The last report detailed the Monza’s re-trimmed ‘FB’ Recaros, which now finally fit me. However, that meant that the standard steering wheel was too big and too far away. Simple, I thought – I’ll buy a steering wheel boss and fit an aftermarket wheel – I even had a red one on my garage wall that would do, in the short term at least. A trawl of German eBay revealed a number of Opel Monza steering wheel bosses for the standard Momo fitment that my spare steering wheel has. I ordered one for £46 plus postage and despatched it straight to Graham Booty’s workshop. Sorted.
He phoned a few days later. ‘Wheel boss doesn’t fit. What do you want me to do?’ ‘Erm, make it fit?’ I said. ‘That isn’t an option,’ he replied. ‘It’s
very wrong.’ Back to the internet. I put a post on the everhelpful Autobahnstormers club forum and discovered that there are two Monza boss part numbers. So, thinking it was logical, I bought the other one. It was just over £60 this time and again came from Germany. You can guess the call: ‘Doesn’t fit either. It has the same splines as the previous one, but the horn hole is in a different place.’
By this time I had another forum response from a member who had done the same as I had: ‘The two wheel bosses you have bought are for lefthand-drive Monzas, one for adjustable column, and for fixed. Neither fits right-hand-drive cars, which have different splines. I made my own boss – but then I did have an engineering shop at the time.’
Sort of helpful, then, but a bit depressing. Why on earth would a massive global company such as General Motors use different splines for its rhd cars?
Then Monza enthusiast, Ian Marsh, said that he’d got one from Moto-Lita years ago but needed modifying. I phoned Moto-Lita and got through to engineer Joe Kaluza and struck up a rapport.
Moto-Lita had no listing for Opel Monzas but Joe was happy to spend some time on it if I sent him a column, because he was fairly certain from my rough measuring and spline count that he had one that fitted my splines, even if other aspects needed sorting. Luckily, having driven Monzas since 1992, I’ve broken a couple for spares and actually had a spare steering column in the shed. As you do.
Joe was as good as his word –within a week he’d worked out what would fit and crucially designed the machining needed to make the horn button work and stop it from fouling the shroud. There was a catch – I’d have to buy a steering wheel as well as the boss because it wouldn’t fit the one on the wall in the garage.
Then I thought, my seats are black with Claret Red centres, why not get a black wheel with Claret Red leather?
Another phone call to Joe elicited that they only carry bright red leather, but if I supplied my own leather they’d happily make me a wheel. He suggested that I talk to their main leather supplier, Tim and Paula at UK Hide. Tim is a proper car enthusiast and was keen to help so he sent me some samples that I could place on the seat’s alcantara and pick one. I was able to buy a half hide of Claret Red, enough to make my 14in Eagle 3 dished wheel.
I visited Moto-Lita to pick the wheel up and was impressed by the craftsmanship. Joe had machined off the back of the boss, drilled out the horn function and built a custom connection for it, which all worked well when the wheel went on the car.
The final touch was from my good mate, Mark Pinnigar, who does graphics for race car builds and restoration. We had to hack the gearknob off and ended up destroying it completely when we took the gearbox out, so I’d bought an Irmscher replacement from Germany and Mark managed to match the logo for the steering wheel.
Once we get to the bodywork stage, the car won’t carry any Monza or GSE logos, just ‘Irmscher 3.6’ on its Carnelian Red paintwork.
How cool is that?
Joe Kaluza and all at Moto-Lita: moto-lita.co.uk, 01264 772811
Paula Johnson and Tim Barlow at UK Hide: ukhide.co.uk, 01932 353 338
Mark Pinnigar at Mpid Design: 01707 265003